Fear's Coffee
by Nairobi-Harper
Summary: After having a nightmare, Sadness comes in to comfort Fear, and he learns who makes him coffee.


Author's note: Guess who's awake at twelve am and has a party today? The answer is me.

I am personally not a shipper of Fear/Sadness, though decided that until I update my other story in which Joy and Fear go on a mission, I'll leave you guys with a one-shot.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inside Out. The movie belongs to Pixar, and is one of Pixar's greatest films.

 **Fear's Coffee**

Every morning, after Riley and her emotions had awoken, Fear found a cup of coffee for him sitting there. The first time he drank it at Joy's suggestion, he found it to be some of the best coffee he'd ever had, and realized that it slightly calmed his nerves.

"I love this coffee," Fear stated the first time he tasted it. "It's warm and delicious."

Since he was often busier worrying about something than drinking coffee, Fear rarely said things like this, which surprised the other emotions.

"Wow, Fear, glad to hear that coffee tastes so good!" Joy exclaimed with a smile. "You gonna be positive for the rest of the day?"

Of course, he would've agreed, only if he didn't see that Riley was about to trip over her backpack at that second. Quickly handing his lukewarm coffee to Joy, Fear ran to the controls, making it so that Riley picked up the backpack instead of tripping over it.

"Phew," Fear said.

Feeling calmed, he walked back over, thanked Joy, and took his coffee from her, continuing to take sips of this.

"Seriously, I've never had better coffee."

Since Joy was the exact type of emotion who would do something like this, Fear took no time to assume that she had made this coffee.

"Thanks, Joy."

Thinking that Fear was thanking her for being there for Riley, Joy smiled and nodded at him.

"You're very welcome!"

To his assumption, Joy continued making coffee for him every morning, and he continued to feel grateful for it. However, he missed the slight smile on a certain someone's face once she saw that he liked the coffee.

One night, when Riley was twelve, Fear was having troubles sleeping. It seemed that lately, since he had last been on Dream Duty, every time he closed his eyes, he only thought of Jangles. Of course, an emotion having no sleep wasn't good, which resulted in Fear having recently been too tired to actually do his job. Realizing this, the other emotions often sent him to bed early, hoping things would get better for him soon.

Unfortunately, they didn't, and the others' attempts at comforting him failed. They had all tried to snap him out of it, even Anger. However, one emotion hadn't tried yet.

Sadness.

That night, after hearing him shake and rumble in his bed, Sadness walked into his room. Once he saw her shadow, he screamed.

"Are you Jangles?" Fear mumbled, shaking.

"No, Fear," A melancholy voice answered. "You know me."

Recognizing Sadness, Fear calmed down a bit.

"What are you doing here, Sadness?" Fear asked.

Instead of answering, she showed him the cup of coffee that he drank every day.

"Is that the coffee that Joy made me? How'd you get it?"

If she weren't the epitome of sadness, the stubby emotion might have laughed after hearing that.

"Fear, Joy didn't make you this coffee."

She was silent for a moment before continuing with her words.

"I did."

Fear took a moment to take this information in. Once he had slowly taken in everything that she had said, he felt like hugging the emotion sitting next to him. Sadness handed him the cup of coffee.

"Here. I think it'll help calm you down."

The emotion in bed nodded, silent though taking a sip of the coffee.

"Do you feel better now?"

Continuing his silence, Fear slowly nodded, as Sadness nearly smiled.

"That's great to hear. It looks like my work is done."

She was about to get up, though Fear finally chose this as his moment to speak.

"Wait, Sadness?"

Turning back around, she gave him a look of confusion, since she still felt that she had comforted him.

"Yes?"

"Why do you make me coffee?"

While he did feel grateful for this, Fear did wonder why Sadness wasted any time on making him coffee.

"I make you coffee because you're always so scared, and I just think that must be really sad for you. Is it?"

Fear hadn't taken much time to think about this, instead usually focusing more on Riley than he did himself, since he was one of her emotions. However, after Sadness brought this up, he realized that she not only knew more than she took credit for, though that what she said was also true.

"Well, I never really thought about it before, but I guess it is. I'm always scared, even at night, like I was before you came in. I'm usually too focused on Riley to notice, I guess."

Sadness nodded at this, understanding. One of she and Fear's crucial differences was that, even though Joy had been accepting her more lately, Sadness had always been ignored, and Fear usually had more time on the controls. This caused Sadness to read more, and think about her life more since she had free time.

"I understand. Have you ever felt sad about it before?"

Though it was rare, Fear could recall a few times in which nightmares got so bad that he ended up sobbing. However, he usually liked to forget about these times, once again instead putting any of his attention on Riley.

"Well, yes. Sometimes the nightmares get just too bad, and I can't stand it. I really don't like talking about it, though, Sadness, no offense."

Much to the emotion's surprise, Sadness put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sometimes, you just need to feel sad, even if you think you don't. That's life. If you feel sad, feel sad. It's okay. We're a team, and we're always there for you, for each other."

Fear slowly nodded, feeling better by this conversation.

"You feel better yet?"

Glancing up at her, Fear gave the emotion a small smile, one that he usually didn't give during times like this, before taking another sip of his coffee.

"Yes, Sadness. Thank you. I do. I think I can actually go to sleep now."

Sadness finally gave him a small smile, before disappearing into her bedroom to go back to sleep.

As for Fear, he simply smiled after this, drinking the remains of his coffee before lying down for some sleep.

 **Yep, my first Fear/Sadness one-shot, and it's come to this. I hope you like it, and that I portrayed Sadness well as Empathy here!**


End file.
